Sunday, May 31, 2009

something new

"Inked" digital monoprint, 13 x 19"

something new (phase 1)

here is the first printing of the new digital piece

it seems to "beg" for some red marks that also have the "inky" look
after attempting some digital solutions that for various technical issues wouldn't fly (wrong OS for tablet on this machine, can't find Painter software CD to install on laptop with correct OS, etc etc), I went ANALOG.
found my tin of Grandfather's dip pens, found the jar of ink, made some marks and now I've gotta wait for the ink to dry so I can scan... to be continued...

something old

"Slashed #4" Lithograph, 15.5 x 21"

I scanned more old prints @ Otis yesterday (they have 11 x 17 scanners and I had to be there to teach). I encountered the old problem of too much data, not enough storage... forgot to take my iPod that has 8G of empty space - doh! So had to save some of the scans on the CPU there... hopefully, they'll be there next week...
(too lazy to drive over there and rescue them any sooner).

The scanning process -- sitting, waiting for the preview and the digitizing -- helped me focus on which old pieces I want to revisit and reuse. Because of the press release I wrote, I'm looking more at the ones that are about weaving. I think the above qualifies and I'm attracted to the marks and ink blotty bits. So this is today's image that I'll fool around with. Results will post in a while...

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

writing a press release blurb on work that doesn't yet exist -- be vague

In Pattern Recognition, Anne M Bray plays with motifs and materials she developed more than thirty years ago. "For the past five years, I’ve been designing prints for an intimate apparel company and this has lead me to reconsider my old pattern-based work." Multiple layerings, fragmentation and interweaving are all themes in both old prints and collages and new digitally derived mashups. "I was surprised to discover how quickly I slipped back into my old methods of working, despite using new technology."

Monday, May 25, 2009

I found what I was looking for

finally!


The above is one more large piece that I discovered a few days ago. that's Chuey "helping" me document it.

Below on the left is a small sampling of what I found today.
Now I need some place where I can lay it all out and really see what I have... without the cats walking all over it.

From my brief rifle through the portfolio, many items which I don't remember -- very exciting:
the 2 items above on the right are new part-way done digitals
scanned some new marks, now layer, layer, layer


june 2009

june 2009, originally uploaded by anne m bray.
here's june --
go ahead, drag it to your desktop

Thursday, May 21, 2009

what's going on

I recently decided to join in on a show @ TAG that opens 6/24. That in itself is crazy. And then I got really bad bursitis in my drawing shoulder. Such pain I couldn't lift ANYTHING!

Anyhow, I was revisiting my old work from the 70s -- abstract patterny prints + collages:

(Above is a 19 x 18" detail of a 72 x 56" collage on canvas that is being used on the invite card)

I've found only about 5 of the old smaller pieces (which I'm hoping to find the rest to help, um, fill the wall space) that I'd pulled a couple of years ago... Where are the rest?? Somewhere in my art storage area, blocked by boxes of framed art that I can't move. ARGH!

So rather than dwell on the above issue, I scanned what I have and started experimenting digitally. I took this old lithograph:

and then started doing multi printing passes through the printer. This is similar to the technique that I used to use with the silkscreen as shown below:

(I'm worried that these marks look too much like the Nike swoosh - that branding wasn't pervasive when I created this in 76, but now...)

My limitation with the inkjet is that I don't have the opacity of color that I had before. So I need to plan it out a bit.
Here's 2 bits of what I did yesterday:

Well, it's a start...
Very much fun, I will say that. They need way, way, WAY more layering